Drafting Plans for the next 50 years of the Abbey Buildings

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Draft plans for improvements to the Abbey Buildings are on display in the checker. There are a series of options set out for early discussions.

The Friends of Abingdon, custodians of the buildings, are preparing for an application for Heritage Lottery Funding and will be looking to improve access, and the usefulness of the buildings for the next 50 years.

The Friends themselves are to split into two charities, one dedicated to looking after the Abbey Buildings,

and the other a Civic Society, with a more general interest in looking after the town of Abingdon.

The annual Heritage Open Day (8th September) will be a more low key affair this year. I am passing control to somebody else who will take the lead and is already planning for 2019. So for 2018 any buildings that wish to open will do. There will also be some walks. So it will be a more relaxed affair, not the usual themed event with leaflets.

Also in 2018 the Abingdon Area Archaeological and Historical Society are celebrating their 50th anniversary with an exhibition and some big events.

A hot day at Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council

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Another hot day and councillors at the town council meeting this evening did not have to wear the usual heavy robes.

The entrance to the Roysse Room for the town council meeting was by a back door as the Roysse Court is being redeveloped.

Members of the public, councillors, and staff were asked to stand as the Mayor of Abingdon-on-Thames followed the mace into the room. Then Reverend Charles Miller led prayers. The Mayor, Councillor Margaret Crick, then presented cheques to groups who had been awarded grants including Abbey Brass, Abingdon Music Centre, Abingdon Rotary, and Smash badminton.

Three members of the public addressed the council before the meeting. Among them Pat Bryden wanted to set up a memorial for Alan Bryden, a former Town and County Councillor, who did a lot for the town. She proposed some improvements to some of the tourist maps in the town centre, and the addition of seats to some bus stops on the Oxford Road. She will provide the resources if the town council agree.

There followed a lot of questions about the town bus service, being paid for by the town council for £30K. It will run from Monday to Friday, 4 times a day and will go through South Abingdon between 9:06 and 14:56. It uses the route of the 41 bus that was previously subsidised by the County Council. It will run for one year from September 2018 – August 2019.

The meeting then went through all the committee papers since the last Town Council, and an audit of the Town Council accounts.

Lastly there was a discussion of three proposals put forward by town councillors. There is sometimes a misunderstanding that the town council runs the town. But for some matters they need to lobby the Vale of the White Horse District Council (VWHDC) on important matters about the town. All three proposals were addressed to VWHDC and were unanimously agreed by the Councillors.

1. The Upper Reaches Hotel has been boarded up for three years. What is VWHDC doing about that, and do they have any legal powers to influence the hotel owner? A letter will be written from Town Council to District Council to try and make the current situation public.

2. The toilets at the Charter are disgusting. Money had been put into the VWHDC budget to improve them, and the car park. So how is that going, and what are the plans for the charter generally? A letter will be written from Town Council to District Council to try and make the current situation public.

3. Parking enforcement is not top of the list of police force priorities but they currently control on street parking in Abingdon. In 2014 the VWHDC considered introducing civic parking enforcement, but rejected the idea. Could they consider it again in 2018 for the sake of the parking situation outside schools and the town centre? A letter will be written from Town Council to District Council

On the Bridge in Abingdon

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On the Bridge in Abingdon
Abingdon Bridge is bathed in sunshine and the temperature is not far off the South of France, where we were until yesterday. Flying home there were very few clouds from Marseille to Paris and over the channel.

The warm weather is predicted to last until the end of the week. I may have missed the food festival last weekend, but I see there is a town council meeting on Wednesday evening, then Abingdon History Day with lectures about Abingdon all day Saturday,
On the Bridge in Abingdon
and Rugby Sevens.

Sur le Pont d’Abingdon

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Sur le Pont dAbingdon
The Abingdon Blog is having a few days rest as the blogger has been visiting places in the south of France, including Avignon. Avignon has a famous bridge across the Rhône.

At Avignon, the original bridge no longer goes all the way across.It has fallen down and been rebuilt a number of times. The Rhône is a powerful river and during the mini ice age, of medieval times, big blocks of ice came crashing against the spans sending them tumbling into the water.
Sur le Pont dAbingdon
The Avignon bridge is known around the world because of the famous children’s song,
Sur le pont d’Avignon,
On y danse,
on y danse,
Sur le pont d’Avignon,
On y danse,
tous en rond.

There was no dancing today, but a mistral was blowing us all about, and I thought that people taking pictures of each other, or selfies, looked like dancing.

Normal blog service will be resumed as soon as I find my way back from Avignon to Abingdon. Take care. It would be dangerous dancing Sur le Pont d’Abingdon.